JOHN CHAPTER 10: 14-21.
Those of you who hear the word of our God, not only with willingness,
but also with attention, doubtless remember our promise. Indeed the same
gospel lesson has also been read to-day which was read last Lord's day;
because, having lingered over certain closely related topics, we could
not discuss all that we owed to your powers of understanding. Accordingly,
what has been already said and discoursed about we do not inquire into
today, lest by continual repetitions we should be prevented from reaching
what has still to be spoken. You know now in the Lord's name who is the
good Shepherd, and in what way good shepherds are His members, and therefore
the Shepherd is one. You know who is the hireling we have to bear with;
who the wolf, and the thieves, and the robbers we have to beware of; who
are the sheep, and what is the door whereby both sheep and shepherd enter:
how we are to understand the doorkeeper. You know also that every one who
entereth not by the door is a thief and a robber, and cometh not but to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy. All these sayings have, as I think,
been sufficiently handled. To-day we ought to tell you, as far as the Lord
enables us (for Jesus Christ our Saviour hath Himself told us that He is
both the Shepherd and the door, and that the good Shepherd entereth in
by the door), how it is that He entereth in by Himself. For if no one is
a good shepherd but he that entereth by the door, and He Himself is preeminently
the good Shepherd, and also Himself the door, I can understand it only
in this way, that He entereth in by Himself to His sheep, and calleth them
to follow Him, and they, going in and out, find pasture, which is to say,
eternal life.
2. I proceed, then, without more delay. when I seek to get into you,
that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching something else,
I should be trying to climb up some other way. Christ, therefore, is my
gate to you: by Christ I get entrance, not to your houses, but to your
hearts. It is by Christ I enter: it is Christ in me that you have been
willingly hearing. And why is it you have thus willingly hearkened to Christ
in me? Because you are the sheep of Christ, purchased with the blood of
Christ. You acknowledge your own price, which is not paid by me, but is
preached by my instrumentality. He, and only He, was the buyer, who shed
precious blood--the precious blood of Him who was without sin. Yet made
He precious also the blood of His own, for whom He paid the price of blood:
for had He not made the blood of His own precious, it would not have been
said, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."(1)
So also when He saith, "The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep,"
He is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have
done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was
able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him,
who Himself had said, "Without me ye can do nothing"?(2) But from the same
source we can show what others also have done, for the apostle John himself,
who preached the very gospel you have been hearing, has said in his epistle,
"Just as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we also to lay down
our lives for the brethren."(3) "We ought," he says: He made us debtors
who first set the example. To the same effect it is written in a certain
place, "If thou sittest down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise observation
of what is set before thee; and put to thy hand, knowing that it will be
thy duty to make similar provision in turn."(4) You know what is meant
by the ruler's table: you there find the body and blood of Christ; let
him who comes to such a table be ready with similar provision. And what
is such similar provision? As fire laid down His life for us, so ought
we also, for the edification of others, and the maintenance of the faith,(5)
to lay down our lives far the brethren. To the same effect He said to Peter,
whom He wished to make a good shepherd. not in Peter's own person, but
as a member of His body: "Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep." This He
did once, again, and a third time, to the disciple's sorrow. And when the
Lord had questioned him as often as lie judged it needful, that he who
had thrice denied might thrice confess Him, and had a third time given
him the charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, "when thou wast young,
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou
shall be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird
thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." And the evangelist has
explained the Lord's meaning: "But this spake He, signifying by what death
he should glorify God."(6) "Feed my sheep" applies, then, to this, that
thou shouldst lay down thy life for my sheep.
3. And now when He saith, "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I
the Father," who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He knoweth the Father
by Himself, and we by Him. That He hath knowledge by Himself, we know already:
that we also have knowledge by Him, we have likewise learned, for this
also we have learned of Him. For He Himself hath said: "No one hath seen
God at any time; but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him."(1) And so by Him do we also get this knowledge,
to whom He hath declared Him. In another place also He saith: "No one knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any one the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."(2) As He then knoweth the
Father by Himself, and we know the Father by Him; so into the sheepfold
He entereth by Himself, and we by Him. We were saying that by Christ we
have a door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ. We preach
Christ; and therefore we enter in by the door. But Christ preacheth Christ,
for He preacheth Himself; and so the Shepherd entereth in by Himself. when
the light shows the other things that are seen in the light, does it need
some other means of being made visible itself? The light, then, exhibits
both other things and itself. Whatever we understand, we understand with
the intellect: and how, save by the intellect, do we understand the intellect
itself? But does one in the same way with the bodily eye see both other
things and [the eye] itself? For though men see with their eyes, yet their
own eyes they see not. The eye of the flesh sees other things, itself it
cannot [see]: but the intellect understands itself as well other things.
In the same way as the intellect seeth itself, so also cloth Christ preach
Himself. If He preacheth Himself, and by preaching entereth into thee,
He entereth into thee by Himself. And He is the door to the Father, for
there is no way of approach to the Father but by Him. "For there is one
God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."(3) Many
things are expressed by a word: all that I have just said, I have said,
of course, by means of words. If I were wishing to speak also of a word
itself, how could I do so but by the use of the word? And thus both many
things are expressed by a word, which are not the same as the word, and
the word itself can only be expressed by means of the word. By the Lord's
help we have been copious in illustration. Remember, then, how the Lord
Jesus Christ is both the door and the Shepherd: the door, in presenting
Himself to view; the Shepherd, in entering in by Himself. And indeed, brethren,
because He is the Shepherd, He hath given to His members to be so likewise.
For both Peter, and Paul, and the other apostles were, as all good bishops
are, shepherds. But none of us calleth himself the door. This--the way
of entrance for the sheep--He has retained as exclusively belonging to
Himself. In short, Paul discharged the office of a good shepherd when he
preached Christ, because he entered by the door. But when the undisciplined
sheep began to create schisms, and to set up other doors before them, not
of entrance to their joint assembly, but for falling away into divisions,
saying, some of them, "I am of Paul;" others, "I am of Cephas;" others,"
I of Apollos;" others, "I of Christ:" terrified for those who said, "I
am of Paul,"--as if calling out to the sheep, Wretched ones, whither are
you going? I am not the door,--he said, "Was Paul crucified for you? or
were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"(4) But those who said, "I am of
Christ," had found the door.
4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now indeed
being constantly reminded; for we have commended much the one sheepfold,
preaching unity, that all the sheep should enter by Christ, and none of
them should follow Donatus. Nevertheless, for what particular reason this
was said by the Lord, is sufficiently apparent. For He was speaking among
the Jews, and had been specially sent to the Jews, not for the sake of
that class who were bound up in their inhuman hatred and persistently abiding
in darkness, but for the sake of some in the nation whom He calls His sheep:
of whom He saith, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel."(5) He knew them even amid the crowd of His raging foes, and foresaw
them in the peace of believing. What, then, does He mean by saying, "I
am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," but that He
exhibited His bodily presence only to the people of Israel? He did not
proceed Himself to the Gentiles, but sent: to the people of Israel He both
sent and came in person, that those who proved despisers should receive
the greater judgment, because favored also with the sight of His actual
presence. The Lord Himself was there: there He chose a mother: there He
wished to be conceived, to be born, to shed His blood: there are His footprints,(6)
now objects of adoration where last He stood, and whence He ascended to
heaven: but to the Gentiles He only sent.
5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to us, but
sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of those whom
He sent. Far from it: let such a thought be banished from your hearts;
for He Himself was in those whom He sent. Listen to Paul himself whom He
sent; for Paul was specially sent as an apostle to the Gentiles; and it
is Paul who, terrifying them not with himself but with Him saith, "Do ye
wish to receive a proof of Him who speaketh in me, that is, of Christ?"(1)
Listen also to the Lord Himself. "And other sheep I have," that is, among
the Gentiles, "which are not of this fold," that is, of the people of Israel:
"them also must I bring." Therefore, even when it is by the instrumentality
of His servants, it is He and not another that bringeth them. Listen further:
"They shall hear my voice." See here also, it is He Himself who speaks
by His servants, and it is His voice that is heard in those whom He sends.
"That there may be one fold, and one shepherd." Of these two flocks, as
of two walls, is the corner-stone formed.(2) And thus is He both door and
the corner-stone: all by way of comparison, none of them literally.
6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your notice,
and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise do comprehend
it; and yet let those who are not yet intellectually enlightened, keep
hold by faith of what they cannot as yet understand. Christ is many things
metaphorically, which strictly speaking(3) He is not. Metaphorically Christ
is both a rock, and a door, and a corner-stone, and a shepherd, and a lamb,
and a lion. How numerous are such similitudes, and as many more as would
take too long to enumerate! But if you select the strict significations
of things as you are accustomed to see them, then He is neither a rock,
for He is not hard and senseless; nor a door, for no artisan made Him;
nor a corner-stone, for He was not constructed by a builder; nor a shepherd,
for He is no keeper of four-footed animals; nor a lion, as it ranks among
the beasts of the forest; nor a lamb, as it belongs to the flock. All such,
then, are by way of comparison. But what is He properly? "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [God was
the Word]." And what, as He appeared in human nature? "And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us [in us]."(4)
7. Hear also what follows. "Therefore doth my Father love me," He saith,
"because I lay down my life. that I might take it again." What is this
that He says? "Therefore doth my Father love me:" because I die, that I
may rise again.(5) For the "I" is uttered with special emphasis: "Because
I lay down," He saith, "I lay down my life," "I lay down." What is that
"I lay down"? I Lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might rage,
but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I were unwilling
to lay down my life, what would all their raging effect? By one answer
of His they were prostrated in the dust: when they were asked, "Whom seek
ye?" they said, "Jesus;" and on His saying to them, "I am He, they went
backward, and fell to the ground."(6) Those who thus fell to the ground
at one word of Christ when about to die, what will they do at the sound
of His voice when coming to judgment? "I, I," I say, "lay down my life,
that I may take it again." Let not the Jews boast, as if they had prevailed;
He Himself laid down His life. "I laid me down [to sleep]," He says [elsewhere].
You know the psalm: "I laid me down and slept; and I awaked [rose up],
for the Lord sustaineth me." What of that--"I lay down"? Because it was
my pleasure, I did so. What does "I lay down" mean? I died. Was it not
a lying down to sleep on His part, who, when He pleased, rose from the
tomb as He would from a bed? But He loves to give glory to the Father,
that He may stir us up to glorify our Creator. For in adding, "I arose,
for the Lord sustaineth me;" think you there was here a kind of failing
in His power, so that, while He had it in His own power to die, He had
it not in His power to rise again? So, indeed, the words seem to imply
when not more closely considered. "I lay down to sleep;" that is, I did
so, because I pleased. "And I arose:" why? "Because the Lord sustaineth
[will sustain] me."(7) What then? wouldst Thou not have power to rise of
Thyself? If Thou hadst not the power, Thou wouldst not have said, "I have
power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again." But, as
showing that not only did the Father raise the Son, but the Son also raised
Himself, hear how, in another passage in the Gospel, He saith, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And the evangelist
adds: "But this He spake of the temple Of is body."(1) For only that which
died was restored to life. The Word is not mortal, His soul is not mortal.
If even thine dieth not, could the Lord's be subject to death?
8. How can I know, thou wilt say, that mine dieth not? Slay it not thyself,
and it cannot die. How, thou asketh, can I slay my soul? To say nothing.
meanwhile of other sins, "The mouth that lieth, slayeth the soul."(2) How,
thou sayest, can I be sure that it dieth not? Listen to the Lord Himself
giving security to His servant: "Be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do." But what in the plainest
terms does He say? "Fear Him who hath power to slay both soul and body
in hell."(3) Here you have the fact that it dieth, and that it doth not
die. What is its dying? What is dying to thy flesh? Dying, to thy flesh,
is the losing of its life: dying to thy soul, is the losing of its life.
The life of thy flesh is thy soul: the life of thy soul is thy God. As
the flesh dies in losing the soul, which is its life, so the soul dieth
in losing God, who is its life. Of a certainty, then, the soul is immortal.
Manifestly immortal, for it liveth even when dead. For what the apostle
said of the luxurious widow, may also be said of the soul if it has lost
its God, "she is dead while she liveth."(4)
9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]?(5) Let us, brethren,
inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is not so pressing
as is usual on the Lord's day: we have leisure. and theirs will be the
profit who have assembled to-day also to wait on the Word of God. "I lay
down my life," He says. Who lays down? What lays He down? What is Christ?
The Word and man. Not man as being flesh alone: but as man consists of
flesh and soul, so, in Christ there is a complete humanity. For He would
not have assumed the baser part, and left the better behind, seeing that
the soul of man is certainly superior to the body. Since, then, there is
entire manhood in Christ, what is Christ? The Word, I repeat, and man.
What is the Word and man? The Word soul, and flesh. Keep hold of that,
for there has been no lack of heretics on this point also, expelled as
they were some time ago from the catholic truth, but still persisting,
like thieves and robbers who enter not by the door, to lay their snares
around the fold. These heretics are termed Apollinarians,(6) and have ventured
to assert dogmatically that Christ is only the word and flesh, and contend
that He did not assume a human soul. And yet some of them could not deny
that there was a soul in Christ. See their intolerable absurdity and madness.
They would have Him to possess an irrational soul, but deny Him a rational
one. They allowed Him a mere animal, they deprived Him of a human, soul.
But they took away Christ's reason by losing their own. Let it be otherwise
with us, who have been nourished and established in the catholic faith.
Accordingly, on this occasion I would remind your Charity, that, as in
former lectures, we have given you sufficient instruction against the Sabellians
and Arians,--the Sabellians, who say, The Father is the same as the Son--the
Arians, who say, The Father is one being, the Son is another, as if the
Father and Son were not of the same substance--and also, provided you remember
as you ought, against the Photinian heretics, who have asserted that Christ
was mere man, and destitute of Godhead:(7) and against the Manicheans,
who maintain that He was God only without any true humanity: we may, on
this occasion, in speaking about the soul, give you some instruction also
in opposition to the Apollinarians, who say that our Lord Jesus Christ
had no human soul, that is, a rational intelligent soul,--that soul, I
mean, by which, as men, we differ from the brutes.
10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, "I have power to lay
down my soul [life]"? Who lays down his soul, and takes it again? Is it
as being the Word that Christ does so? Or is it the human soul He possesses
that lays down and resumes its own existence? Or is it His fleshly nature
that lays down its life and takes it again? Let us sift each of the three
questions I have suggested, and choose that which conforms to the standard
of truth. For if we say that the Word of God laid down His soul, and took
it again, we should have to fear the entrance of a wicked thought, and
have it said to us: Then there was a time when that soul was separated
from the Word, and a time, after His assumption of that soul, when He was
without a soul. I see, indeed, that the Word was once without a human soul,
but only so, when "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." But from the time that the Word was made flesh,
to dwell amongst us,(1) and manhood was assumed by the Word, that is, our
whole nature, soul and flesh, what more could His passion and death do
than separate the body from the soul? It separated not the soul from the
Word. For if the Lord died, yea, because He died (for He did so for us
on the cross), doubtless His flesh breathed out that which was its life:
for a short time the soul forsook the flesh, although destined by its own
return to raise the flesh again to life. But I cannot say that the soul
was separated from the Word. He said to the soul of the thief, "To-day
shalt thou be with me in paradise."(2) He forsook not the believing soul
of the robber, and did He abandon His own? Surely not; but when the Lord
took that of the other into His keeping, He certainly retained His own
in indissoluble union. If, on the other hand, we say that the soul laid
down and reassumed itself, we fall into the greatest absurdity; for what
was not separated from the Word, was inseparable from itself.
11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood. Take the
case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul and flesh, but
only of soul and flesh; and let us inquire how any such man lays down his
life. Can no ordinary man do so? Thou mayest say to me: No man has power
to lay down his life [soul], and to take it again. But were not a man able
to lay down his life, the Apostle John would not say, "As Christ laid down
his life for us, even so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren."(3)
Therefore may we also (if only we are filled with His courage, for without
Him we can do nothing) lay down our lives for the brethren. when some holy
martyr has laid down his life for the brethren, who laid it down, and what
laid he down? If we understand this, we shall perceive in what sense it
was said by Christ, "I have power to lay down my life." Art thou prepared,
O man, to die for Christ? I am prepared, he replies. Let me repeat the
question in other words. Art thou prepared to lay down thy life for Christ?
And to these words he makes me the same reply, I am prepared, as he had,
when I said, Art thou prepared to die? To lay down one's life [soul], is,
then, the same as to die. But in whose behalf is the sacrifice in this
case? For all men, when they die, lay down their life; but it is not all
who lay it down for Christ. And no one has power to resume what he has
laid down. But Christ both laid it down for us, and did so when it pleased
Him; and when it pleased Him, He took it again. To lay down one's soul
then, is to die. As also the Apostle Peter said to the Lord: "I will lay
down my life [soul] for Thy sake;"(4) that is, I will die for Thy sake.
View it, then, as referable to the flesh: the flesh layeth down its life,
and the flesh taketh it again; not, indeed, the flesh by its own power,
but by the power of Him that inhabiteth it. The flesh, then, layeth down
its life in expiring. Look at the Lord Himself on the cross: He said, "I
thirst:" those who were present dipped a sponge in vinegar, fastened it
to a reed, and applied it to His mouth; then, having received it, He said,
"It is finished;" meaning, All is fulfilled which had been prophesied regarding
me as, prior to my death, still in the future. And because He had the power,
when He pleased, to lay down His life, after He had said, "It is finished,"
what adds the evangelist? "And He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit."(5)
This is to lay down the soul [life]. Only let your Charity attend to this.
"He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit." Who gave up? what gave He
up? He gave up the spirit; His flesh gave it up. What means, the flesh
gave it up? The flesh sent it forth, breathed it out. For so, in becoming
separated from the spirit, we are said to expire. Just as getting outside
the paternal soil is to be expatriated, turning aside from the track is
to deviate; so to become separated from the spirit is to expire; and that
spirit is the soul [life]. Accordingly, when the soul quits the flesh,
and the flesh remains without the soul, then is a man said to lay down
his soul [his human life]. when did Christ lay down His life? when it pleased
the Word. For sovereign authority resided in the Word; and therein lay
the power to determine when the flesh should lay down its life, and when
it should take it again.
12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay down
His life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this way, that Christ
is both flesh, and soul, and the Word; and yet these three things are not
three Christs, but one. Ask thine own human nature, and from thyself ascend
to what is above thee, and which, if not yet able to be understood, can
at least be believed. For in the same way that one man is soul and body,
is one Christ both the Word and man. Consider what I have said, and understand.
The soul and body are two things, but one man: the Word and man are two
things, but one Christ. Apply, then, the subject to any man. Where is now
the Apostle Paul? If one answer, At rest with Christ, he speaks truly.
And likewise, should one reply, In the sepulchre at Rome, he is equally
right. The one answer I get refers to his soul, the other to his flesh.
And yet we do not say that there are two Apostle Pauls, one who rests in
Christ, another who was laid in the sepulchre; although we may say that
the Apostle Paul liveth in Christ, and that the same apostle lieth dead
in the tomb. Some one dieth, and we say, He was a good man, and faithful;
he is in peace with the Lord: and then immediately, Let us attend his obsequies,
and lay him in the sepulchre. Thou art about to bury one whom thou hadst
just declared to be in peace with God; for the latter regards the soul
which blooms eternally, and the other the body, which is laid down in corruption.
But while the partnership of the flesh and soul has received the name of
man, the same name is now applied to either of them, singly and by itself.
13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord has
said, "I lay down my life, and I take it again." The flesh layeth it down,
but by the power of the Word: the flesh taketh it again, but by the same
power. Even His own name, the Lord Christ, was applied to His flesh alone.
How can you prove it? says some one. We believe of a certainty not only
in God the Father, but also in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord: and
this that I have just said contains the whole, in Jesus Christ His Son,
our only Lord. Understand that the whole is here: the Word, and soul, and
flesh. At all events thou confessest what is also held by the same faith,
that thou believest in that Christ who was crucified and buried. Ergo,
thou deniest not that Christ was buried; and yet it was the burial only
of His flesh. For had the soul been there, He would not have been dead:
but if it was a true death, and its resurrection real, it was previously
without life in the tomb; and yet it was Christ that was buried. And so
the flesh apart from the soul was also Christ, for it was only the flesh
that was buried. Learn the same likewise in the words of an apostle. "Let
this mind," he says, "be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Who,
save Christ Jesus, as respects His nature as the Word, is God with God?
But look at what follows: "But emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form
of a servant; being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as
a man." And who is this, but the same Christ Jesus Himself? But here we
have now all the parts, both the Word in that form of God which assumed
the form of a servant, and the soul and the flesh in that form of a servant
which was assumed by the form of God. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death."(1) Now in His death, it was His flesh only that was slain
by the Jews. For if He said to His disciples, "Fear not them that kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul,"(2) how could they do more
in His own case than kill the body? And yet in the slaying of His flesh,
it was Christ that was slain. Accordingly, when the flesh laid down its
life, Christ laid it down; and when the flesh, in order to its resurrection,
assumed its life, Christ assumed it. Nevertheless this was done, not by
the power of the flesh, but of Him who assumed both soul and flesh, that
in them these very things might receive fulfillment.
14. "This commandment," He says, "have I received of my Father." The
Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only begotten Word
of the Father every commandment resides. But when the Son is said to receive
of the Father what He possesses essentially in Himself, as it is said,
"As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have
life in Himself,"(3) while the Son is Himself the life,there is no lessening
of His authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For the Father
added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at birth, but
on Him whom He begat in absolute perfection He bestowed all gifts in begetting.
In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself, and yet begat Him not
in a state of inequality. But while the Lord thus spake, for the light
was shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not,(4) "there
was a dissension again created among the Jews for these sayings, and many
of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad: why hear ye him?" This was the
thickest darkness. Others said, "These are not the words of him that hath
a devil; can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" The eyes of such were
now begun to be opened.
